MDRI GEM Fellow Research Assistant Wins Scientific Poster Competition

Britney Mack, a former Materials Discovery Research Institute (MDRI) GEM fellow research assistant, earned first place in a recent technical poster competition at the 2024 GEM Annual Board Meeting and Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Mack won the Sept. 27 competition with a presentation summarizing the research she conducted for MDRI as part of her National Graduate Education for Minorities (GEM) Consortium fellowship. Her winning poster featured her work on metal-organic framework synthesis and characterization for atmospheric water harvesting applications.

“I had the opportunity to work on enhancing materials for water harvesting — a critical emerging field,” said Mack, a University of Alabama chemical engineering doctoral student. “It’s invaluable experience and a great foundation for my career.”

Since 2022, UL Research Institutes (ULRI) has been an employer member of GEM, a nonprofit organization that seeks to increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in applied science and engineering. GEM fellows receive financial support as well as real-world experience through paid summer fellowships with participating employers.

Mack joined MDRI, one of ULRI’s five research institutes, as a GEM fellow in June 2024. During her 10 weeks at MDRI, Mack put her background in materials science to work on modifying a nanoporous material to enable it to capture water from the atmosphere at low relative humidity.

It’s research that is critical for providing access to off-the-grid, sustainable clean water in the arid regions of the world, said Timur Islamoglu, Ph.D., a MDRI lead research scientist who served as Mack’s manager.

“Britney’s nanoporous material work has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of the modification of these materials,” Islamoglu said. “She excels at applying her knowledge of tailoring material properties, so it comes as no surprise that she won this highly competitive poster competition.”